ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

I. Cor. 10:17, "We are all partakers of that one bread." (The true marks of the Church invisible are the preaching of the Gospel and the administering of the Sacraments; but the marks, as claimed by the Roman Catholic Church, are not in evidence. If the church is one with the pope, then there was no church before the popes; besides, Church History does not know much about that oneness of the Catholic Church. Holiness is not a mark of the church; for, either it is an outward holiness, that may be in evidence with hypocrites, or it is inward holiness whose praise is not of men, but of God, Rom. 2:29. The name Catholic or General, is no mark of the church; the enemies of the church, too, have assumed that name. Nor is the age a mark of the church; the devil lays claim to that also for his kingdom. The succession of popes is no mark of the church. The Emperors recognized no Vicar of Christ. The early liturgies and church fathers know nothing of the Vicar of Christ. From the year 903 to 963 there was not one lawfully elected pope. (Theol. Quart., April, 1910.) Nor is the Roman Catholic Church apostolic. The sixteen groups of heresies mentioned in this book, and as laid to the door of the papists, are certainly not apostolic. Many popes were deposed for being heretics, one for being a devil incarnate. (Pope John XXIII., in 1415.) As to the assertion that the Church as such is infallible, see Greek Catholics, paragraph 1.) 17-20, "If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican."

Matth. 18

I. Peter 2: 9, "Ye are the chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (The right and authority to call ministers of the Gospel, to preach, to absolve from sins, to baptize, and to administer Holy Communion, is of the church, and not of the clergy alone, nor of any part of the congregation alone.)

Acts 1:15, 23-26, "In those days Peter stood up in

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the midst of the disciples, and said: (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty) And they appointed two *** And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles."

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Acts 6: 2-6, "The twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said: It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report ** whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude; and they chose Stephen they set before the apostles.

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whom

Acts 13: 1-3, "Now there were in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers * * * As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said: Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands upon them, they sent them away." (Instances of how congregations have exercised and used their rights and privileges. The ministry, the highest office within the congregation; other offices are not enjoined by God, but left to the wisdom of the congregation. In the various congregations the rank in office was by no means the same; they should have been the same necessarily, if they had been divinely ordered.)

Rev. 16, "And hath made us kings and priests." Compare:

I. Cor. 3: 5, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye have believed." (The ministers in the New Testament as such are never called priests. If all Christians are priests, of which there cannot be any doubt, they all deal directly with God.)

Ps. 19:12, (See p. 23.) Matth. 6:12. There is no command, nor promise for, nor any example of, auricular confession in the Bible.

c. Lutheran Teaching: The church is the whole number of all believers, and consisting only of believers. The only ruler is Christ in person. Its marks are the preaching of the Gospel and administering the Sacraments, and

these only. It is the inalienable right and privilege of the congregation to choose and call ministers, who in their name are to perform the functions of the office of the keys. (Quest. 185, 190, 306, S. C.)

Augsburg Confession, Art. VII.: "For this is sufficient towards true church unity that the Gospel is preached according to common consent to, and clear understanding of the same, and that the Sacraments are administered according to the divine ordinance. Nor is it necessary towards true unity of the church that at all places the same rites or ceremonies as instituted by man are observed."

Apology, Art. VII., 12: "Although the wicked and ungodly hypocrites associate with the true church as far as external signs, names and offices are concerned, nevertheless, in speaking of the church proper, only those can be defined as such that are the living body of Christ, and not only associate in external signs, but have the gifts in their hearts; the Holy Spirit and faith."

Smalcald Articles, of the powers, etc., 67: "Where the Church is, there is the command to preach the Gospel. Therefore the churches must retain the power to call, elect and ordain ministers. And such power is a gift properly given by God, and cannot be taken away from the Church by any human authority."

16. Concerning Church Government the Romanists assert that there is a divinely instituted jurisdiction in the church; the pope being supreme ruler. All churches and all governments are subject to the Catholic Church, as to their mother and teacher.

Accordingly, the church has authority to command and to forbid even when God forbids and commands to the contrary. Church discipline must be enforced just as strictly as God's commandments.

a. Quotations: See decree of infallibility, p. 12. "We declare, say, define, and pronounce it to be necessary to salvation, that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff." Pope Boniface VIII., in the Bull, Unam Sanctam, Nov. 18, 1302.

"And He has ordained that one should be the ruler of

all, and to be the supreme and most reliable teacher." Pope Leo XIII., in the Bull, Immortale Dei.

"It would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced." Leo XIII., in Longinque Oceani.

As for the Papists making laws, where God has forbidden, and vice versa, see quotations on p. 31.

b. The Bible to the contrary: Matth. 28: 20, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Christ needs no vicar.)

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John 3: 29-30, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom * He must increase, but I must decrease." (The head of the Church is also her bridegroom. The Church has but one bridegroom; she does not want to commit adultery, or be a two-headed monster. The pope and the bishops want to increase, and Christ should decrease.)

Compare Matth. 23:8-9: "But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

Was Peter the ruler of the apostles? If Roman Catholics cannot prove that, their cause is lost. This is admitted by them. The supremacy of the pope, (resting on the supremacy of Peter over the apostles) is to them the capital dogma without which Christianity cannot subsist. (De Maistre, in Puller, pp. 95-96.)

I. Peter 1:1, and II. Peter 1: 1. Peter does not want to be any more than a servant, an apostle. I. Peter 5:1, he calls himself: also an elder among elders. He forbids rulership in the council, I. Peter 5:3; he is sent by the apostles, Acts 8: 14. When he had spoken at the convention in Jerusalem, Acts 157, all the multitude kept silence, but only to hear Paul and Barnabas, v. 12; not Peter, but James forms the resolution, v. 19. The resolution is passed not by Peter alone, but by the apostles and elders, with the whole church, v. 22. Not only Peter, but also James and John (James mentioned first) seemed to

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be pillars of the church, Gal. 2:9. Paul was not subject to, nor a whit behind, Peter or the other apostles, II. Cor. 11:5. Not upon Peter, but upon the faith which Peter expressed in words, does Christ build His Church, Matth. 16 18. If the rock applies to Peter personally, the Church tottered to its base when Peter denied Christ, and again, if it refers to Peter and is to be applied to the pope as Peter's successor, then the "Satan" in v. 23, which surely refers to Peter, must also be applied to the 260 popes personally, and to the spirit, methods and policy of the Roman court throughout history. Peter was married, which the popes are not, I. Cor. 95. Peter was not bishop in Rome from 42 to 67. He was in Judea and Syria until the fourth year of Claudius, (Gal. 2:11; Acts 157.) Paul preached in Rome in person, but never mentions Peter as being in Rome, and only Luke was with him in 67, II. Tim. 4 : 10.

c. Lutheran Teaching: Smalcald Art. 10, "This doctrine (of the church) pre-eminently shows the pope to be the real Antichrist that exalts himself above and against Christ, since he will not let Christians be saved without his power, which is in fact nothing, neither ordained nor commanded by God." (Compare quotat., Group 15.) the pope is the Antichrist, according to II. Thess. 2 : 3-9. And on his own principles no Romanist can say with certainty that there is a true Catholic and apostolic Church on earth to-day.

They claim the pope is the head and ruler of the Roman Catholic Church. But, according to their own decrees a doubtful pope is no pope; a heretical pope is no pope; an unlawful pope is no pope; a simoniacal pope (one who gets the office by bribery) is no pope; a lack-ofintention-pope is no pope.

Cardinal Bellarmine says, a doubtful pope is no pope, (De Conc. II., ch. 19, sect. XIX.) The same is said in a decree by Pope Nicholas II. From 251 to 1328 there were thirty-nine anti-popes. Pope Damasus went to the papal chair through violent rioting, which the Canon Law forbids. From 1378 to 1417 there were two, sometimes three, lines of rival popes, everyone of them cursing every one else as the Antichrist.